The Jewel Academy Collection

By Jami Klein

Embark on a magical journey with Lola Bragg in "The Jewel Academy Series Collection," featuring the gripping tales of Book 1: "Diamond in the Rough," Book 2: "Pearl of Wisdom," Book 3: "City of Emeralds," and Book 4: "Ocean of Sapphires."

 

Book 1: Diamond in the Rough Lola Bragg never belonged at the Jewel Academy, but a troubled past and a penchant for mind magic landed her there. Teaming up with the enigmatic werelion, Stefan Harte, becomes her only hope for survival in a world of dangerous cliques and mystic perils. With outside forces threatening the academy, Lola and Stefan must navigate the tumultuous waters of friendship and trust, where safety lies in unexpected alliances.

 

Book 2: Pearl of Wisdom The Jewel Academy is a place where weakness is synonymous with prey, and Lola Bragg knows this all too well. With a blood contract tying her to a vampire and her loyal were-lion bodyguard Stefan growing distant, Lola must maintain the illusion of magical restraint. Faced with the challenges of fitting into the academy's cliques and unlocking the truth behind her father's murder, Lola's journey takes her deeper into the shadows, where secrets and dangers lurk.

 

Book 3: City of Emeralds The Jewel Academy faces lockdown by the Federal Bureau of Magical Investigation, jeopardizing the annual Sigil Games. Lola, along with vampire Andrei and werelion Stefan, must overcome the disdain of the witch covens to secure a spot in the competition. As they embark on a perilous journey to Ireland's Emerald City, Lola seeks not only victory but revenge against the man who took her father's life. Eager for justice, she risks it all in a bid to confront her past.

 

Book 4: Ocean of Sapphires Ghouls, merfolk, and a blue dragon's hoard threaten the Jewel Academy's tranquility. Lola, Stefan, and Andrei find themselves thrust into a battle against rampaging ghouls and underwater kidnappers, missing out on a class field trip in the process. As the trio faces new challenges beneath the waves, they must confront ancient powers and navigate treacherous waters to save their friends and themselves.

 

Join Lola Bragg in this captivating anthology as she tackles the complexities of magical academies, dangerous alliances, and the pursuit of justice in a world where nothing is as it seems. Will Lola's wits and magical abilities be enough to overcome the trials that await her at the Jewel Academy? Find out in this thrilling collection of Academy adventure books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jami Klein
• Release date: Feb 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798201201395

Book preview

I

considered jumping out of the car at the traffic light. A few things stopped me. One, I had anti-magic bracelets on my wrists, which prevent me from casting all but the most baby-level spells. Two, I was locked in the back seat of a Federal Bureau of Magical Investigation car, and I was pretty sure the two agents in the front seat could outspell me, even if I wasn’t shackled magically. And three, my mother was sitting right next to me, alternating between worry and fear.

It’s going to be okay, I said to her in a low voice, hoping not to draw the agents’ attention.

Mom gave me a tight nod and wrapped her arms around herself. It seemed like she had aged twenty years in the three months since Dad had died. And now she was going to lose me too. At least until Yule break.

I was being escorted to the Jewel Academy for crimes I absolutely committed and would do again. Hence the anti-magic bracelets. I caught Agent Jackson looking at me in the rearview mirror. He was the good cop. His partner, Agent Fines, was the bad cop. She was currently driving exactly the speed limit and stopping a full three seconds at every stop sign.

I don’t suppose we could turn the car around and I could do a few years of community service? I asked, already knowing the answer, but having to try anyway.

Lola, you’re lucky you’re not doing a few years in prison, Agent Fines said, without taking her eyes off the road. And that you’re only sixteen. Two more years and you would have been neutered.

I frowned at her. I’m not a feral cat.

Is that right? she drawled.

I had to have misheard that because it sounded like perfect Agent Fines had stooped to sarcasm. I should know; I was fluent in sarcasm. Being magically neutered meant that they’d come for me and burn out the section in my brain that allowed me to do magic. I was supposed to feel grateful that they jammed these bangles from hell on my wrists instead. For the thousandth time, I tried to ease them over my hand, tucking my thumb to my palm to make it smaller. No luck. The stupid things automatically resized.

The null magic gave me a headache if I touched the bracelet for too long. Or looked at it. Or thought about it.

I sighed and considered running for it again. But we were literally in the middle of nowhere Connecticut. I was a city girl. Born and raised in New Haven. Pizza. Italian ices. Yale University. The Coven School.

Civilization.

The Jewel Academy was in the deep woods in the farthest corner of the state. Ticks. Snakes. Haunted caverns. No Wi-Fi!

It wasn’t fair. He deserved it, I said, meeting Agent Jackson’s eyes in the mirror again. The sympathy in them made me want to cry. But I never cry. Not even when they told me my dad died in a plane crash. Not even when I researched the crash and found out there wasn’t a crash that day.

My dad was still dead, though.

I read the funeral director’s thoughts to make sure.

There are things you can never unsee.

Don’t ever read a mortician’s mind.

But if he hadn’t died in a plane crash, how had he died? My mother refused to talk about it and everyone else just ignored my questions. The police said denial was a natural step in the grief process. And no minds I peeked into believed that there was a conspiracy. As far as anyone local had been concerned, it had been a tragic accident, and if there wasn’t record of the crash, well, that must have been a clerical error.

It was no clerical error. That, I was sure of.

I think it was something my dad had been working on. But what? He had a job in an insurance company. He’d occasionally have to go to trade shows around the country and sometimes overseas. Who would want to kill a salesman? Unless they thought he was fiddling with their minds to buy more stock or insurance. But that wasn’t my dad at all. He barely used his powers. He was paranoid about using his mind magic. Only his boss and a few others knew he was magically gifted. He had always told me to keep the full truth of what I could do hidden until I was eighteen. When I was legally an adult, the FBMI couldn’t take me away from Mom and Dad and put me in a government facility to be groomed to be a federal drone like Agent Fines.

Everything went to Hades when he died.

Everything.

You are not a judge, Agent Fines said. You don’t get to mete out punishment as you see fit. That’s why we have a court system. Your mother could have pressed charges against her boss.

Yeah. I snorted. It was her word against his. No one would have believed her. She would have gotten fired, and that creep would have done it to someone else. I bet he’ll think twice before he makes unwanted advances on the maid again.

Lola, stop, my mother said, putting a hand on my arm. Then she snatched it back, as if the contact burned her.

I frowned at her reaction. Look, no one got hurt. I’ll pay back the money. There’s no need to rip me out of my high school.

Which one? Agent Fines asked. Hillhouse or Coven?

Coven? I said hopefully.

They rescinded your enrollment once they found out you stole the tuition money.

I didn’t steal it. Mr. Hannigan paid for it. Of course, Mr. Hannigan had been magically coerced by yours truly. As I said, he deserved it.

The same way he paid for a brand-new Mustang convertible for you?

Goddess, that had been a sweet ride. It was candy apple red, but they should have called the paint job pull me over red instead. Because I hadn’t had that car a day before I got pinched in a speed trap. And that was what started the whole line of awkward questions that led to my arrest.

He was a creep, I muttered.

That’s not illegal, Agent Fines said.

Well, it should be. I made him give my mother a raise and leave her alone. And that would have been the end of it. But then he decided to perv on me and that was all she wrote.

You’ll like it at Jewel Academy, my mother said. There are more people like you there.

Yeah, and they lock them in so they can’t escape.

It’s for everyone’s safety, she murmured.

What about my safety? I jiggled the bracelets. I’ll be a sitting duck with these on. I won’t be able to defend myself.

You shouldn’t have to defend yourself, Agent Jackson said, half-turning in his seat so he could face me. I know the headmistress. She’s tough, but fair.

That was usually a euphemism for witch on wheels.

This is a school, not a prison. Yes, there are extra precautions and there is a rough element, but you’re going to be fine.

How do you know I’ll be fine? I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him.

Because you’re used to being a big fish in a little pond. Now, you’re still going to be a big fish, but you’re going to be in an ocean. Don’t make waves.

I snorted in disgust. How long did it take you to come up with that?

Lola, don’t be rude, Mom said.

If my father were still alive, this would have never happened. He would have continued homeschooling me in my mind magic, while I went to a normal high school. My mother wouldn’t have had to get a second job cleaning hotel rooms to pay our property taxes. We never would have met Mr. Hannigan, and my mother wouldn’t be afraid of me.

I could tell she was trying to hide it, but she was curled up against the door as far away from me as she could get. When I was a baby and my talent of listening in on other people’s thoughts emerged, my father was thrilled. He had mapped out my entire life. I was going to work in espionage like he had wanted to. But he hadn’t been powerful enough, so he poured all his energies into me fulfilling his lifelong dream.

When I got older, I hated that I could see the lies that people told me. Not as much as they hated it, though. We had to move a few times because mundanes called me a freak and wanted me locked up. Hey, I wasn’t the one cheating on their wives or cooking the books.

No one likes a snitch, my father said. Keep the information to yourself until you need to use it.

He basically told me to hide my mind magic and only use it in an emergency. Which totally blew, because I was only mediocre at all the other disciplines. The first time I saw a mage turn a tornado away from a trailer park and into an empty field, I was so jealous. I wanted to be a weather witch, but my talent with the elements is almost null. I could run between the raindrops, but that was about it.

Then I saw a combat mage shoot lightning out his fingers and electrify a runaway car, short-circuiting every power cell in it. The most elemental power I could muster was lighting a campfire with a snap.

I couldn’t transform rock into mud, metal into liquid, or—the ever-popular party trick—water into wine. I could, however, make your lemonade too tart or your burrito extra spicy. Neither of which ’impressed anyone, but I was fun at parties.

I could always hear thoughts if someone was thinking loudly enough or not shielding their mind. Of course, right now I couldn’t hear an elephant fart with these bracelets on—if the elephant farted in his mind.

Dad had been worried that I was outgrowing his ability to teach. He was looking to get me transferred to the Coven School for Girls, but it was hella expensive. New powers had started to emerge this year, though, and I found I could convince people to change their minds. Before he went away on his business trip, my father had caught me gently guiding my mother into letting me stay out past curfew with my friends. That hadn’t gone over well. My father gave my mother a brooch of protection. It would only stop low-level spells, but it would vibrate whenever anyone was actively casting.

My mom didn’t have a lot of magic. She was good with gardening and plants, but nothing more than that.

One time after he died when she wasn’t paying attention, I swiped the brooch right around the time my principal was calling her to tell her I had been caught skipping school. I was at the Milford mall with my friends. It wasn’t like I was planning to knock over a jewelry store. The classes were boring, and I couldn’t breathe inside the school anymore. How could people just go on with their lives like nothing happened when there was a gigantic hole in my life where my father used to be?

I eavesdropped on their conversation and my punishment was going to be that I would have to skip the Homecoming dance. There was no way I was going to miss out on that. So after she hung up with the principal, I had her forget all about my delinquency and the conversation.

It had been so easy.

The look in her eyes after I did it scared the pants off me. They were vacant. It was like she wasn’t my mom anymore. She just stood there like a soldier awaiting more orders. I wanted her to wake up, to just blink and be normal. But she just stood there. I had been terrified to try any more magic on her. I had been convinced I was going to lose her too.

Sick in the heart and in my twisting guts, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. My head hurt and I was so afraid. When she came looking for me a few hours later, I slipped the brooch back into her pocket.

She never suspected a thing.

Until the FBMI scanned her mind after the Hannigan incident and it showed that I had tampered with her memories. She hadn’t let go of the brooch since. In fact, she was still clutching it in her palm.

I confessed what I did. Agent Fines is like me. Only she’s geased to kingdom come not to abuse her powers by the FBMI. If she tried, she’d be neutered. They called mages like her mindbenders. She knew I was telling the truth. It was her job to tell who was lying.

My mom wasn’t sure what to believe. All this powerful magic was too much for her.

I can’t handle you without your father, she had cried as she signed the papers to send me to Jewel Academy for my junior year of high school. They’ll teach you discipline and right from wrong. Something we should have done.

They had taught me that. I just made a mistake. Like I said, if my father were alive, none of this would have ever happened. I had never done anything like it before. But no one seemed to care that I was a first-time offender. Not my mother, and certainly not the FBMI.

After what seemed like hours and hours in the car, we pulled into a narrow turnoff that wasn’t even marked. The path was barely paved, and Agent Fines bottomed out the car more than once. The tree cover hid the sky, and even though it was getting late, it shouldn’t have been this dark outside.

Eventually, the path ended at an enormous iron gate attached to a fence that trailed off in both directions as far as I could see. After a moment of waiting, the gates didn’t open.

I guess they don’t want me either. Let’s try the Coven School.

It’s not time yet, Agent Fines said.

Time for what?

Just wait.

I hated waiting. Patience wasn’t my strong point. I fiddled with my bracelets again, tried to make eye contact with my mother, and when that failed, stared out at the Jewel Academy through the car’s windshield. I could barely make out the large mansion in the distance, just the spires at the top of circular towers. There were a lot of bushes and shrubs in the way, but I could see that there was a path leading up to the mansion. Why didn’t we just honk the horn or get out and see if the gates were locked?

I couldn’t take it any longer.

What are we waiting for?

Dusk, Agent Fines said.

My mother drew in a quick breath, but still wouldn’t meet my eyes.

As the sun set, a fog rolled in from the mansion. It got thicker as it blew toward us. My mother was white-knuckled around the brooch and she was mouthing the twenty-third Psalm.

Mom? Are you all right?

The fog passed over the car and coalesced into the figure of a woman. Then the fog was gone. I flinched back at the creature. She had long red hair cascading to her waist. She wore a white billowy pirate shirt with a leather vest and matching leather pants.

Who is that?

Vampire, my mother whispered.

The woman smiled as if she heard, and I could see her pointed canines. I pressed back into the seat. I hadn’t seen a vampire before; not this close anyway.

That’s Headmistress Magee, Agent Jackson said. You’re in good hands with her.

Get out, Agent Fines said, her voice a tad high with fear.

Wait, I thought we were going to drive up to the school? My mom would help me unpack and maybe help me get settled in?

Headmistress Magee tapped her knuckle on the window. Agent Fines reluctantly rolled it down an inch.

I find that extended goodbyes are never helpful for our new students. Please exit the vehicle.

What about my luggage? I babbled. I can’t carry all my suitcases by myself.

The lid of the trunk sprang open and I saw my bags sail out and then over the gates of the Jewel Academy.

Hey, that’s my stuff. I scrambled out of the car and ran up to the gates, but they didn’t budge.

The car door slammed, and Agent Fines kicked up a lot of dust throwing it into reverse and making a quick turn that left ruts in the ground as she drove off.

Mom, I said, holding out my hand.

She didn’t even look back.

I’m sorry, I whispered.

In that moment, if I could take it all back, I would.

"W

elcome to Jewel Academy, Lola Bragg. I’m Headmistress Magee."

I whirled around. How could I have forgotten I had a vampire at my back?

I think there’s been a mistake. I should be at the Coven School.

She shook her head. The Coven School wouldn’t know what to do with you. Here at the Jewel Academy, we’ll teach you how to control your impulses to use your magic for selfish purposes.

I flinched at her words.

Come with me. Magee gestured and the heavy gates silently opened for her.

Taking a shaky breath, I said, You’re really missing out on first impressions. You should let them get a little rusty, so they creak ominously. Maybe hang a few spiderwebs for effect.

We save that for Halloween, Magee said, walking through the gates. We go all out for the locals.

As soon as we passed through, the gates swung silently shut. But the clicking of the lock being engaged was loud in the twilight.

I swear something was watching us from the bushes. I saw a pair of red eyes and another pair of yellow eyes. The gargoyle statues were creeping me out too. I could only hope that they weren’t real. Even the shrubbery looked like it was about to come alive and snatch me off the path.

So now that I’m safe behind bars, could you remove these? I held out my hands to her.

Not just yet. You’ll need to prove yourself first.

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. How long will that take?

That’s up to you.

I love cryptic nonanswers.

Instead of going up to the looming mansion, Magee turned down a path.

Where’s my stuff? I asked.

I sent it to your room. It’s safe there. Right now, I’m going to have you join our night session.

You want me to go to school on a Friday night? Could this get any worse?

Our curriculum is a little more fluid than you’re used to. I want to get you integrated as soon as possible.

I don’t have a pen or notebook. All my stuff went sailing off into the great beyond. I gestured to the mansion.

You won’t need them. We have a magical demonstration tonight from one of our professors. In addition to watching that tonight, you’re going to observe the factions and mingle among the students.

Factions? Maybe I had heard wrong and she had said fractions. I was pretty good in math.

The vampires, the werewolves, the witches. Magee ticked off on her fingers. And, of course, the Enforcers.

Enforcers? Why would you have mage killers here? Suddenly, the hungry bushes didn’t seem so terrifying.

The Enforcers do more than kill witches. They execute all supernatural criminals. And as for why they are here, well, we train them.

You train people to kill your own kind? It’s bad enough the mundanes want to neuter all of us without you helping people hunt us down and kill us.

If it helps, Magee said, the ‘us’ you’re referring to is law-abiding supernaturals and the ‘your own kind’ are the supernaturals who want to watch the world burn.

Who gets to decide if we’re law-abiding or not?

Why, you do, of course. Your actions define you.

Guilt flashed through me. Everybody makes mistakes.

I agree. And everyone should be allowed to learn from them, make amends, and atone for them.

I nodded. But there are still Enforcers here.

As much as I would like it to be different, not everyone chooses to move on from their mistakes.

I swallowed hard. I might not even make it to Yule. If my mother even wanted me to come back.

I knew your father, Magee said.

My head snapped up.

He was a good man, and I was so sorry to hear about his death.

How did you know him?

I was his headmistress when he went here.

I stopped in my tracks. Hold the phone. My dad went here?

Magee nodded. I’m surprised they didn’t tell you.

My dad didn’t talk much about his childhood. He always said the best thing he could say about it was that it was over. Mom might not have even known. And if she had, would she still have wanted me to come here?

You can probably find his old term papers on file in the library, and I’m sure there were some shots of him in the yearbooks.

I had to hurry to catch up with her. I didn’t care how many Enforcers there were. I was going to stay here until I could find all I could about my father’s past. I knew nothing about him before he married my mom. He would never speak about it. The thought of seeing a picture of him or reading his words again made me all misty-eyed. I would not cry on my first day at school.

I had been so absorbed in our conversation I hadn’t realized that we had come to a clearing. Up ahead was a football field, lit up with fey lanterns—balls of magical light that hovered in the air. There were all ages of students wandering around, but most stayed in clusters.

Of course, the first thing I did was try to pick out the Enforcers. I only spotted one. He stood alone in the middle of the bleachers, glaring out at everyone. He was a big guy, probably a football player in addition to training to kill magical beasts and other prey.

Other prey, meaning people like me.

He had shoulder-length sandy blonde hair and a strong jaw. He could be a model for outdoor life and rugged clothing. He held himself preternaturally still, coiled to strike. And he looked wound real tight. As if he sensed me staring, he turned his head and I saw a flash of gold shine over his eyes.

Shapeshifter.

Great. Just great.

Magee raised her arm and one of the girls peeled herself away from a pack of giggling witches. At least I assume they were witches. They gave off a familiar feel. It was the best I could do with these stupid bracelets on. When the girl got close, she recoiled away from me. Away from the null magic of the bracelets. Yeah, that was going to make me popular with this crowd. Stand next to me and have your powers weakened.

Lola Bragg, this is Priscilla Walton. She’s going to be your roommate for the rest of the semester.

I’d shake your hand… I started to say, with a half-laugh.

Priscilla made a face. Please don’t.

Great. We were off to a pleasant start.

I’ll leave you in Priscilla’s capable hands.

I hoped that Magee would mist off into the night, but she drifted over to a group of boys who were probably vampires. At least, I think they were vampires. Magee had been the first vampire I’d ever met, but I thought I saw one of the boys flash a fang at me. It could have been a smile of welcoming. It could have been I vant to suck your blud. He was cute. Not my type. I liked boys with a pulse. But for an undead fiend, he had it going on. He had short black hair cut close to his skull and dark eyes. He also had a killer smile—literally.

Don’t stare at the vampires. Priscilla sighed in annoyance.

I tore my gaze away from the boy and forced myself to look at Priscilla instead. She looked like a rich girl who belonged in the Coven School instead of a sketchy place like this. Why? I asked.

Duh, because they can roll your mind and make you do things you don’t want to.

I hid a snort. I’d like to see him try it. My father had been very proud of my mental shields. Of course, I only tried them out on mundanes and him. Back in New Haven, we had a local werewolf pack, but they didn’t go to human schools, so I didn’t interact with them very often. And vampires were only out after dark and my curfew was strict, so I never ran into one.

Agent Fines had pushed right into my mind as if my shields weren’t even there, though. Maybe other supernaturals could too. I resisted the urge to look back at the vampires. I needed to get these bracelets off first.

So what are you in for? Priscilla asked.

Mind control.

She flinched back from me again.

I was just making a better and better impression with each passing moment.

Why don’t we go over here? Priscilla walked away from her friends and headed toward a table filled with snacks.

My stomach grumbled. I could eat. At least they weren’t going to starve me.

What are you in for? I asked, filling up my plate with fried chicken and a heaping pile of french fries. At least if I had to be here on a Friday night, I could treat myself.

She made a face. I burned the house down.

I paused with a chicken leg halfway to my mouth. Come again?

We have others, she said, using tongs to scoop up some rabbit food.

Other…?

Houses, duh. Priscilla stabbed at her salad with a fork. It wasn’t even my fault. The building wasn’t up to code.

Why did you burn down the house?

I didn’t mean to. I got angry and fire shot out of my fingers.

And she was my roommate.

Does that happen a lot?

She shrugged one shoulder and went back to picking at her salad.

Great. I’d have to sleep with a fire extinguisher.

So, I’m kind of new to a school full of supernaturals. I’ve been mostly homeschooled for magic. I’d really like to fit in here. What can you tell me about all the…factions?

Priscilla perked up a bit at that. I got the sense that she liked to talk about people. I’d have to watch what I said around her. Otherwise, she’d be sharing all my secrets too.

Well, you’ve had the standard safety courses, right?

Not really, I said. Better safe than sorry.

Okay, real quick. Don’t go near the vampires if you have an open wound. Bandage it up. Otherwise, the younger ones might go into blood lust and kill you before a teacher can stop them.

Important safety tip. I put my plate back down. I was no longer hungry.

Then there’s the shifters. They hang around in packs, obviously. The Alphas tend to be arrogant assholes, but if you have a problem with one of their gangs, take it up with the Alpha. Don’t try to handle the problem on your own.

What if I have a problem with the Alpha?

Priscilla laughed as if I told a joke. I had been serious, but I smiled like I meant it that way.

I don’t have to school you on the witches. Stay out of our minds.

I held up my bracelets. No choice.

No black magic outside of the classroom.

I strove to keep my face neutral. Black magic. My homeschooling had been a little lax in that area. It had been regulated to one word: No.

If you have a ritual in the dorm, everyone needs to be invited and coed rituals can’t be skyclad.

Naked.

Good to know.

When Priscilla continued to nibble on her salad, I prompted her. What about the Enforcers?

She shrugged. Stay out of their way and they’ll stay out of yours.

How do I recognize them?

Duh, they wear black uniforms and have weapons. It’s not fair. We don’t get to have weapons.

My gaze slid back to the Enforcer on the bleachers. He was wearing a red varsity jacket and jeans.

Why isn’t that Enforcer wearing a uniform? I gestured with my chin, but it caught his attention anyway and we regarded each other again. The golden sheen rolled over his eyes and I shivered, feeling like a doe in headlights.

Oh, Goddess no. Priscilla yanked my arm, forgetting that I had on a magic null object and twirled me, so my back was to the Enforcer. She marched me over to her friends and nearly threw me into the middle of their circle.

They all recoiled from my bracelet.

I can’t help it, I said as an apology. I hate them too. What’s the big idea? I turned back to Priscilla. Are we not allowed to ask questions about the Enforcers?

That’s not an Enforcer, Priscilla hissed at me, keeping her voice low. She snapped her fingers and the rest of the group started humming. I recognized the background noise as an anti-eavesdropping spell.

That’s Stefan Harte.

One of the girls hid a small shriek in the spell. Priscilla frowned at her. No excuse for sloppy spellwork, Maya.

Okay, pretend this is my first day and I don’t know anyone here, I said sarcastically.

He’s a lion shifter.

Lion?

I wanted to whirl to check him out again, but Priscilla had shoved me in the middle of the circle and I couldn’t see over the anti-eavesdropping field they had erected.

He’s crazy, Maya whispered.

Like totally unbalanced, one of the girls maintaining the spell said. She wore a gold necklace that spelled out her name, Betty.

Rumor has it, he killed a kid for teasing him, another girl added.

Killed? I asked. As in murder?

No one knows. He hasn’t said a word since it happened, Priscilla said.

He’s a freak, Maya said.

And dangerous, Betty added.

So, needless to say, don’t look at him either. Don’t talk to him, Priscilla warned.

He won’t say anything back anyway, Betty said. No one has ever heard him speak. He just glares at you with his amber eyes and turns away.

Be that as it may, Priscilla said, glaring at Betty for interrupting her warning, if you see him coming toward you, don’t run away. You’ll only trigger his prey drive. Walk briskly to a teacher or an Enforcer.

I’m not going near an Enforcer.

Trust me, Priscilla said. Stefan Harte is much worse. Have you ever been chased by a full-grown lion?

Can’t say that I have.

You don’t want to. And I don’t want to lose another roommate.

Wait, I said. What happened to your other roommate?

Priscilla waved her hand. It’s not important now. The demonstration is about to start.

T

he demonstration was about teleportation, and even though I wanted to search the crowd for Stefan Harte, I was fascinated at the lesson. My toes tingled to attempt the spell, but I wasn’t able to reach the well of my magic. The stupid bracelets blocked me. But at least they didn’t cause me any pain. I only got zotted when I tried mind magic. This felt like trying to breathe through a stuffed-up nose.

Priscilla and her group moved closer so they could do the hands-on exercise. I looked around for Magee, but I didn’t see her. Since I couldn’t do anything, I just wanted to go back to my room.

Are you a diamond? a husky voice said in my ear.

Goose bumps broke out all over my arms and I turned to see the vampire boy from earlier standing way too close. I looked into his eyes before I remembered not to, but I didn’t feel any compulsion. Maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe it would be like what I did to my mom and I would never know I’d been manipulated. Maybe I deserved that.

He raised an eyebrow at me and I realized I was still me. He wasn’t trying to hex me.

What’s a diamond? I asked.

It’s what we call low-level magic users here.

Diamonds? Is that because low-level magic users are rare?

No. Diamond aren’t rare, no matter what the television commercials tell you. Have you ever seen a diamond?

Yeah, I said. Of course, I have.

Are they in every mall in the country?

Yeah.

Common. He snapped his fingers.

But expensive, I pointed out.

That’s just marketing.

I didn’t catch your name, I said, folding my arms over my chest.

Andrei Vanlinger. He gave a little bow and clicked his heels.

How did you wind up at the Jewel Academy? I asked.

It’s impolite to ask that question, he said with a scowl.

Huh, that made sense. No wonder Priscilla led off with it. Sorry, I said. I’ve been here less than two hours. I’m still trying to find my way.

It is polite to reciprocate when someone offers their name.

I was going to snap at him that I didn’t need an etiquette lesson, but apparently, I did. Lola Bragg.

Lola, would you take some advice from a stranger?

As long as it’s free, I quipped.

Nothing is free.

Then save it. I’ll figure things out on my own.

Andrei nodded. Good. You might survive your first week after all.

And he was across the field next to his friends in the next blink. I guess there would be no outrunning the vampires either. It was a half hour more before Priscilla remembered me.

I guess I should show you to our room, she said.

Thanks. I was beginning to come apart at the seams and I just wanted to get away from all the inquiring eyes and lie down in bed.

I got in line as all the students filed into the main part of the mansion. The foyer was done in gleaming white marble with gold accents, a scrolled capital letter J and A were stylized in gleaming mosaic on the floor. The ceiling was so high I got a crick in my neck looking up at it. At the far end of the room were three spiral staircases, each leading upward.

The red staircase is for vampires. The black for the shifters. And ours is the golden one. You’re not allowed in the other faction’s’ dormitories. It’s for our own safety. Priscilla rolled her eyes. There are ways around that. If you’re discreet, no one cares.

Where do the Enforcers sleep?

Their dorms are outside, but they are posted everywhere. In the lobby. In the woods. In the classrooms. There’s always an Enforcer patrol awake.

Good to know.

I trailed after Priscilla, going up the seemingly endless staircases and landings. I looked over my shoulder to see if I could see Stefan or Andrei, but they were lost in the crowd of students.

Girls’ dorms are on the even-numbered floors. Boys are on the odd-numbered floors. They’re spelled not to let someone of the opposite sex in. But... She winked at me. There are ways around that too.

I didn’t want to know. At least, not until I had a boyfriend or something. But it was comforting that I probably didn’t have to worry about coming out of the shower and being face-to-face with a member of the opposite sex.

Bathroom is at the end of the hall. All thirteen of us on this floor share it, so get used to showering at night or you’re going to be late for classes.

What’s our schedule for tomorrow? I asked, following Priscilla to a room at the end of the hallway on the sixth floor. Number 13. I wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not. When I wasn’t so brain dead, I’d count the rooms and see if we really were the thirteenth room on this floor. Shouldn’t the last room be numbered six or seven, if there were thirteen of us?

Tomorrow’s Saturday, Priscilla said, as if I was a moron. She flopped on a bed that was decked out with throw pillows and stuffed animals. The other bed in the room was bare, with a lumpy-looking